


wild winds and wayward winters

by chivalrousamour



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, because it is a cloud, dimitri's horse is named after a cloud, fairies and spirits au, typhoons blizzards and downpours as a bonding activity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 08:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chivalrousamour/pseuds/chivalrousamour
Summary: fairies happened
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Hilda Valentine Goneril
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	wild winds and wayward winters

**Author's Note:**

> YES, hilda IS wearing the dancer outfit!  
pretimeskip designs because i don't know how eye damage would work at all with. uh, spirits. u know.

_In the land of Fódlan, there is a legend._

* * *

Dimitri was beginning to lose his patience.

He had a meeting with Claude, leader of the wind spirits. Though Claude agreed to send some winds up north to help steer the clouds in the right directions, the wind spirits as a whole were so wild and self-interested that it hardly seemed to matter what Claude had ordered them to do.

On top of that, the prince of the water kingdom had lost his horse and gotten separated from Dedue. Which meant that he was alone, wandering the forest for sign of either one. 

Listening for any sign of life aside from squirrels and rabbits, he heard a faint singing somewhere around.

While Dimitri doubted that Dedue or his horse, Stratus, were the type to sing, he was still in the heart of the wind's territory. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a stray wind spirit to be wandering wherever. Perhaps they had seen his companions?

Making up his mind, Dimitri approached the singing. He caught sight of pink amongst green leaves, pushing aside a branch to find a clearing.

A woman had her eyes shut, singing as she twirled about in the air. With a bright smile, she danced on the air, ascending and descending freely. Her twintails spun with her body, like the ribbons hanging off of her wrists.

With each spin, she sent a gale in another direction, rustling the leaves. With her final note, she raised her arm high in the air. It was like she was trying to send her voice to the clouds Dimitri called home.

In place of his home, the trees responded to her singing, dropping down pinecones. One of which struck Dimitri in the head.

At Dimitri's expression of surprise and pain, the pink-haired wind spirit hurriedly turned her head towards him. Her face was red as she screamed.

"W-who's there?! It's bad luck to spy on a spirit! I'll curse you!" 

"I apologize, I was just... looking for a horse. And a person," Dimitri said, stepping forward into the clearing.

"Oh, so you're lost, huh, traveller..." she replied, giving him shifty eyes with reddened cheeks. "I'd _love_ to help, but I'm not too sure I'll be useful?"

She floated about above him, looking pensive.

"A horse... and a person, right? Hm, horses look like cloud spirits, right? The ones water spirits ride on?"

"Yes," Dimitri confirmed, since his horse _was_ a cloud spirit.

She let out a soft _'ohhhh_' in response. 

"I thought I saw a cloud spirit heading that way, but maybe it was your horse?" she said, pointing behind her. "There was a large man with dark skin and white hair with it. Are those the two you're looking for, traveller?"

"Yes! Thank you very much!"

"Ha, it's nothing! Hope you find your friends!"

And with that, she had left.

He managed to reunite with Dedue and his horse thanks to her help.

* * *

The next time Dimitri visited the alliance of wind spirits, he remembered the kind dancer who helped him, along with how red she had gone when he had seen her dancing.

Asking Dedue and Stratus to stay back just enough to remain out of sight, he approached the same clearing he had found her in last time.

Only, there was no one there at all...

A stray breeze tickled the back of Dimitri's neck, and he turned to see a grinning spirit floating above him.

"Lost again, traveller?" she asked with a grin. 

"Actually, I was searching for you," Dimitri admitted. 

"Well, you're in luck!" the dancer exclaimed. "I actually just returned from a trip to visit my brother. If you got here a bit later or sooner, you would have missed me!"

"You were on a trip?" Dimitri asked.

"Yep, I'm a free spirit," she admitted proudly. "I travel around the world, dancing wherever I please. No responsibilities or cares at all."

Dimitri felt a pang of envy at that.

The Goddess knew that Dimitri had many, many responsibilities. While his father was still reigning, he was to learn how to oversee the migration routes of the cloud spirits, shift around enough workers to prevent too many droughts before the winter, and watch over Claude's wind spirit reinforcements.

"Ah well, enough about me, what are you doing here?" she asked. 

"I came to thank you for helping me reunite with those I was travelling with," Dimitri said, gesturing to a package he had brought with him. "I've come with gifts, if you'd like."

"Woah...! Thanks a ton! I appreciate it!" she said as she took the box. 

Opening it, her expression quickly turned stony.

"This is a knife," she said flatly.

"Yes."

"Um, so you intended to give me a knife...?"

"If anyone ever were to sneak up on you again, you could defend yourself. It's not iron, so you can still wield it," Dimitri explained. "I've heard tales of humans trying to capture spirits and force them into captivity, so it'd be best if you had a way to protect yourself."

She laughed.

"Not even the king of water fairies could capture me!" she exclaimed. "Maybe the humans could capture fire spirits, maybe water fairies, but _me_? I'm the freest gust there's ever been! No need to worry about me."

"I'm sorry, it seems that I've chosen out an improper gift," Dimitri said. "If you'd like, I could take it back."

"Nope, I'm keeping it," the wind spirit declared. "I think it's sweet that you worried about me at all."

She removed the knife from its container, looking it over carefully.

"Hmm, it's not too short, not too long... If I practice with this, I could develop a whole new style... oh! And it'd be useful for jewellery-making..." she muttered to herself. "Thank you! It's a great gift."

Dimitri felt a weight come off his shoulders as he smiled.

"I'm glad you appreciate it."

"Yeah, I'm really happy right now, traveller!"

They went their separate ways.

* * *

"Argh, why does that Gloucester refuse to help?" Dimitri muttered to himself as he rode through the forest with Dedue. "We could do so much more if his family would just..."

"Each wind spirit is free, regardless of their leader's wishes," Dedue replied. 

Dimitri sighed. 

"I know, but..."

And then, the sound of a branch falling to the ground reached their ears. Dedue went to protect Dimitri, but then, a string of curses followed.

Dimitri recognized that woman's voice.

Ordering Dedue to stay put with their horses, Dimitri went to examine the sound.

Just as he thought, a pink-haired wind spirit was levitating just above a fallen branch, almost looking frustrated with it.

"Are you alright?" he asked, and she looked up at him.

"Oh, traveller, I was just... practicing a bit," she said. "It turns out that it's harder to use knives than I thought."

"...what were you even practicing?" 

"Well... the knife sort of looked like a baton human dancers use... so I wanted to try it," she confessed.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Nope, not at all! The branch, however, definitely is."

Dimitri let out a sigh of relief.

"But, I'm glad you came!" she said. "I made a carving with the knife you gave me, so it's only right to show you, right?"

"A carving...?"

The pink-haired spirit smiled as she removed a wood carving from her clothing, showing him a miniature lion statue.

"It's cute, right?"

"It's _incredible_," Dimitri said instantly. "Did you really only make this with only a knife?" 

"U-um, well, accessory-making is my hobby aside from dancing," she admitted. "It's not that... it's not that good."

"Do not degrade yourself so!" he ordered. "This is exquisite detail! Really!"

"Well, if you like it so much, feel free to keep it!" she exclaimed, blushing.

"Eh? Wait?"

She fled before Dimitri could respond in more depth, leaving Dimitri alone with a miniature lion carving.

Dimitri turned the lion over, seeing a signature carved into the wood. 

"...HIlda?"

* * *

The next few times he visited wind spirit territory, Hilda had been absent. Which was a shame, because Dimitri really needed to return the lion to her. 

With spirits like them, possession of a name could be used to hold power over another. While she had only left one of her names, it was still enough. If he wished, he could use the carving to force her to abide by his will.

Well, he wouldn't, but since she didn't know that... 

When his business with the alliance was over, he rode towards the nearest human settlement, knowing that he would be able to take the change to see if rains were falling on the field like planned. 

It wasn't as if he was hoping that extending the time spent around wind spirit territory would boost his chances of seeing her.

(He didn't get to see her for several months.)

* * *

The next time he sees her, she's dancing over the ocean. The water crashed onto the shore and flew all about her, her joyful dancing whipping the air into sharp gusts.

No sound but that of crashing waves reached his ears. Her power tore the clouds from their paths and sent their cargo spilling onto the ground in a torrent of rain.

Her presence, her power was awe-inspiring. Dimitri couldn't help but be entranced, just as he had been the first time.

But, unlike the first time, when Hilda noticed him, she smiled.

"Traveller, what a coincidence!" she called out over the roaring wind. "What could you be doing here?"

"Er, I'm on a work excursion!" Dimitri replied. 

She laughed as she flew over towards him.

"I don't understand humans at all," she told him. "When you've got such short lives, why would you spend it working so hard? Worrying so much?"

Dimitri didn't really understand why she was talking about humans all of a sudden, but he figured he ought to answer her seriously.

"Isn't it _because_ humans die so easily? Lack of food, illness, even injuries can kill them..."

"Ha, isn't that all the more reason to relax?" Hilda replied. 

She offered her hand to him with a grin, her feet drifting to the ground for the first time since they'd met.

"Won't you dance with me?" she asked. "You always seem to be hard at work!"

Dimitri hesitated.

In all honesty, he should have refused. Her dance had turned a calm sea into a storm, spilling rain not on crops, but on the ocean itself. He had to find a way to fix the situation.

But, with the thought of how hard she had been to find...

"Just this once," Dimitri answered. 

He took her hand, and they danced.

Hilda laughed, keeping her eyes on him.

As the spirits danced, their steps got further and further from the ground. Thunder rang out like a lion's roar, lightning descended in antler-like arcs, and they kept dancing.

"Wow, you're really good!" Hilda exclaimed. "Normally, I get tripped up from dancing on the ground, but there's nothing like that now!"

"That's because we're in the sky..." Dimitri replied.

"Huh, really?" Hilda asked casually, before doing a double take. "Wait! Since when could humans fly?!"

"...um, did you think I was a human?" Dimitri asked in return. "I'm... the prince of water fairies?"

"W-wait, seriously?!" Hilda exclaimed, before realizing, "wait... yeah, humans are normally too fragile to be able to stand my dancing..."

"Do you do this often?"

"I told you. I'm a free spirit. I travel wherever I want and dance as I wish," Hilda answered, before belatedly adding, "I'm also named Hilda, by the way."

"I know," Dimitri replied. "It was carved on your bear. I wanted to find you so I could return it."

"No, it's a gift," Hilda told him. "Keep it, Prince..."

"Dimitri."

She shot him a smile.

"Dimitri, then," she said, and the sound of his heart was almost drowned out by the storm around them.

* * *

With the changing of the seasons, Dimitri's _'just this once'_ becomes a bold-faced lie. Whenever she appears, she drags him into a dance, chatting about how even princes ought to relax.

Somehow, he's gotten used to looking forward to her appearances. He's grown used to dreading goodbyes.

The next time he saw her, he'd ask her if she could join him in Faerghus, live with him in the kingdom above the clouds.

* * *

_The prince of water fairies fell in love with a freedom-loving wind spirit._

_Too shy to confess, too afraid that she could never accept anything that could restrict her freedom,_

_instead of asking her to be with him, he accepts her offers of a dance._

_Each time a blizzard freezes over the crops, each time a downfall floods the earth,_

_it's because the two are dancing once again._

**Author's Note:**

> there was an entire explanation for the golden deer powers but only the golden deer so please take:  
\- claude: winds of fortune. every time some guy makes a lucky shot for no discernible reason, every time the dice roll on exactly the result you didn't want, that's claude  
\- holst: breeze that makes war banners billow in the wind  
\- lorenz: every time the smell of herbs and tea leaves wafts through the air is his fault  
\- raphael: wind that pushes ships towards their destinations  
\- ignatz: the cool breeze on a hot sweaty day that leaves you a bit more refreshed  
\- leonie: the air under every bird's wings  
\- lysithea: the ambient air of a perfect day  
\- hilda: absolute chaos. does whatever she wants. hot winds in summer and freezing winds in winter. her dances cause storms. when she dances with dimitri it makes blizzards and downpours
> 
> earth is the mother of all because sothis


End file.
